I’d like to share a list that was recently emailed to me by fellow RV traveler, Kim She kindly sent it from somewhere in the Yukon territory of Canada last week.
She and her husband Sam left their home in Louisiana last June, and have been touring around the U.S., criss-crossing much of the same territory that Jim and I have. Read about their travels on their blog.
Kim and I share a lot of things in common, as you can tell by her list of favorite towns. See how she’s picked many of the same places / regions that we have, for many of the same reasons? But she’s also introduced me to some new ones that I’d like to check out, like Rodeo, New Mexico.
Here is Kim’s list of the best small towns in North America that she’s been to, so far. Thanks Kim.
Workamping is a great way to find seasonal RV lifestyle jobs, but we recently learned of another group that connects responsible, wandering vagabonds like us, with property owners needing help.
The Caretaker Gazette is a newsletter packed with unique house sitting jobs and property caretaking opportunities all over the world. For example:
BELIZE. EXPERIENCE TROPICAL SUSTAINABLE Living. No experience necessary. Prefer couple or two adults to caretake Dem Dats Doin, a self sufficient integrated homestead. Age not a factor if you are in reasonably good health. A minimum commitment of four (4) weeks or more, anytime of the year.
COLORADO. RANCH CARETAKER COUPLE needed in Hayden, Colorado. A large ranch called Wolf Mountain Ranch is looking for a couple to reside on the premises and help out with daily chores. Housing will be provided and salaries will be based upon previous experience.
Like workamping, some gigs pay, some don’t. Many have great perks besides a rent-free place to live. For example, I know of a woman, along with her husband, who caretake a horse property near Santa Fe, where they’re allowed to board her horses for free.
We still aren’t sure what we are going to do a year from now, but at least we’ve found another way for us to explore our options for future business and lifestyle endeavors. It’s cool to think that we can have a go at running a ranch or huge private estate without having to actually fork over the money to buy it!
This just in: every minute you spend sitting in traffic to get to a job you hate, one more young adult decides to quit the rat race, sell everything, and hit the road.
Ok, maybe that’s a slight exaggeration. But the longer we’re on the road, the more we keep meeting crazy kids our age who are also fed up with running on the treadmill of job/home/stuff/debt.
Hitek Homeless Hits the Road
Take for instance, Johnny and Jenn, aka Hitek Homeless. We met this couple online last year, while their escape plans were coming to fruition. They bought a killer Arctic Fox truck bed camper and a diesel dualie, sold their stuff, and finally hit the road a few months ago. Recently, Truck Camper Magazine interviewed them about their decision to fulltime.
Last year when we started this journey, one tank of diesel cost us somewhere around $80. This year, the pump shuts off at $99, and we have to slide our credit card again, for another $22 or so in fuel. Today, I just heard that prices are going up another 25 cents per gallon in the next few days.
I’m glad we’ll be workamping in Lake City Colorado during the so-called “peak driving season.” Maybe prices will stabilize after summer, when we hit the road again (one can always hope, right?). But if you’re on the road now, here are a couple of websites that can help you find the best prices in your area.
We came across this earthen home near Pagosa Springs, Colorado. It’s under construction. We were so thrilled when we saw see a “For Sale” sign on the property. We thought “Hey, maybe it’s a sign! Is it meant to be?”
When we stopped to talk to the closest neighbor, he gave us the scoop.
The home is for sale because “Wild Bill” as he’s known by the locals, ran out of money after pouring over $1 million into it. It’s a bare shell, nothing more. It’s been on the market for over three years, and the property owners in this tidy subdivision near Williams Lake would be happy to see it blown up. They’d pay someone to bulldoze it if they could.
Looking at the sorry state of this property, one man’s earthship dream, got us thinking; maybe we don’t have enough money to be so green?
One year ago this week, we drove away from Humboldt County in a daze. We couldn’t believe that we had really pulled our sabbatical off, and year on the road seemed like an eternity. Little did we know that it would fly by seemingly as quick as a two week vacation. We have so much to say about our epic journey. But for now, let’s start with the hard numbers.
Thanks to the meticulous Quickbooks expense tracking I’ve done over the last several years, and Carol White’s Live Your Road Trip Dream book budgeting templates, I was able to put together a budget that works for us. In short: we came in under budget, and the money we’ve saved will enable us to continue to live this lifestyle for at least the next year if we choose to.
If you’d like to see the technical details, a PDF with summarized numbers is here. But if spreadsheets make you snooze, then here’s a quick summary of my numbers for the year, and some ways we saved money:
Considering the millennia it took to form Capitol Reef, not much has changed in Cohab Canyon over the past dozen years.
But we sure have.
Looking at the canyon, I recognize the old rock formations. Looking at the young tent campers nearby, I realize we would have bagged on all these big RVs and us old “campers” running our noisy generators.
We’ve found ourselves back at the campground in the grove at the trailhead to Cohab Canyon where I proposed to René about a dozen years ago on our legendary motorcyle tour of the southwest.
We are just feet from where we tent camped. We probably would have moved if this big ol’ rig parked next to us at the time.
I also just found the following autobiographical early “web page code” and have hereby salvaged it from becoming internet detritus….
Surprised? I saved the cartoon shown for many years before giving it to the woman I knew would marry.
As soon as our rig crossed the border into Colorado, my spirit felt as if I had returned home. This land just calls out to me.
From Minnesota to Maine, there are lots of beautiful places in this country that I think I could live in. But none of them feed my soul like Colorado does. I know I’d love living here. But it could be a pipe dream.
Because in Colorado, you’d never know real estate is crashing all over the country. The Rockies are the most beautiful place in the U.S., and property owners know it. They have it made. I’m not seeing reasonable prices on any pieces of land, except for the most isolated patches of non-irrigated ag fields in the plains regions.
I’d like to share a list that was recently emailed to me by fellow RV traveler, Kim She kindly sent it from somewhere in the Yukon territory of Canada last week.
budgeting templates, I was able to put together a budget that works for us. In short: we came in under budget, and the money we’ve saved will enable us to continue to live this lifestyle for at least the next year if we choose to.
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